Leftists Claim All Conservatives Are White Supremacists, After the Buffalo Mass Shooting
"Conservatives are making a policy argument when they argue against illegal immigration. That is markedly different from replacement theory"
News & Commentary
On Saturday, May 14th, a mass shooting occurred at Tops Friendly Supermarket in Buffalo, New York. Ten people were killed, and three individuals sustained non-fatal injuries. The deranged perpetrator live-streamed the shooting on Twitch. Police were able to arrest the shooter, following the attack. A grand jury has since indicted the Buffalo shooter.
There is no doubt that the shooting was racially motivated. The 18-year-old gunman carried out the attack in an area which has predominantly black residents. Additionally, he displayed the N-word and the number “14” on his firearm. “14” represents the number of words in a common phrase used by white supremacists, “we must secure the existence of our people and a future for white people.” The shooter left behind a manifesto filled with anti-Semitic and racist views, promoting “replacement theory.” Of the thirteen people who were attacked, eleven were black.
The Buffalo shooter was known to law enforcement due to previous threats. In June 2021, the perpetrator threatened to carry out a shooting “either at a graduation ceremony or sometime after.” The New York State Police investigated the perpetrator. He was subsequently referred for a mental health evaluation and counseling.
Last weekend’s attack was a horrific incident carried out by an overtly racist and anti-Semitic individual. Unfortunately, instead of mourning the lives lost, the left immediately jumped into action, politicizing the shooting, blaming Republicans.
Per our usual arrangement, the left immediately called for more gun control after the shooting. President Biden said, “There are certain things we can do. We can keep assault weapons off our streets. We’ve done it before. I did it when I passed the crime bill.” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said that he will “work towards finally ridding our streets of weapons of war.” New York Governor Kathy Hochul called for the state legislature to pass more restrictive gun control measures.
It is absurd for leftists to argue that further gun control would have stopped this shooting. The state of New York has some of the most stringent gun control laws in the nation. One of the gun control measures New York has enacted is a red flag law. Under the red flag law, law enforcement, family members, or teachers could have filed an ex parte application to prohibit the perpetrator from obtaining a firearm. The application would have been approved due to the shooter’s previous threat to carry out a mass shooting. While the red flag law would not have stopped this shooting, it is logically inconsistent for Democrats to advocate for even more restrictive gun control measures when the current gun control measures were not even used. Aside from the red flag law, New York’s gun control laws make it one of the most challenging states to obtain a firearm. Nonetheless, the Buffalo shooting occurred. This is because criminals determined to commit acts of violence will obtain a gun, irrespective of gun control laws.
Democrats have also accused mainstream conservatives of promoting replacement theory. They assert that the Republican’s replacement theory rhetoric inspired the Buffalo shooter to commit this atrocity. This argument by the left contains two separate claims which deserve further analysis.
The left’s first claim is that mainstream conservatives, such as Tucker Carlson, inspired the Buffalo shooter. This claim is an overt lie, which can be disproven by the shooter’s own statements. In the shooter’s 180-page manifesto, he identified himself as a “left-wing authoritarian” and a “populist.” The Buffalo shooter went on to express his hatred for conservatism. In a section of the manifesto titled “Conservatism is Dead Thank God,” the shooter says that “not a thing has been conserved other than corporate profits and the ever increasing wealth of the 1% that exploit the people for their own benefit. Conservatism is dead. Thank god. Now let us bury it and move on to something of worth.” He went on to say, “conservatism is corporatism in disguise, I want no part of it.”
The 18-year-old shooter never cited conservative media for inspiring his rageful shooting. In fact, the shooter expressed disdain for Fox News and Rupert Murdoch. He referred to the hosts on the Fox News channel as Jewish and Murdoch as a “Christian Zionist” - which the anti-Semitic gunman used pejoratively. Furthermore, the shooter’s anti-conservative and anti-Semitic viewpoint is evident when he called conservative commentator Ben Shapiro a “rat.”
In reality, the shooter was radicalized by white supremacists online. He admitted this in his manifesto, stating, “My beliefs started when I first started to use 4chan a few months after covid started . . . Every time I think maybe I shouldn’t commit to an attack I spend 5 min [on] /pol/, then my motivation returns.” The shooter went on to cite other racist and anti-Semitic mass shooters as inspiration for carrying out the attack.
The left is being overtly hypocritical by blaming the Buffalo shooting on Republicans. When President Obama spewed inflammatory anti-police rhetoric before five Dallas police officers were shot and killed – Democrats did not blame Obama. Similarly, the left did not blame Bernie Sanders when one of his campaign volunteers shot Republican congressmen at a practice for the congressional baseball game. The left also refused to blame Rachel Maddow, for the congressional baseball shooting, despite the shooter explicitly writing about his love for “The Rachel Maddow Show.” Nonetheless, Democrats are blaming conservatives for the Buffalo shooting without a shred of evidence.
As a rule, except for cases of overt incitement, as defined by law, political and media figures are not responsible for a radical person carrying out an attack. This is true even if the attacker directly cites the inflammatory rhetoric of a politician or media figure. Every person has free will. Therefore, only the attacker should be blamed.
Barack Obama, Bernie Sanders, and Rachel Maddow should not be held responsible for the violent actions of a deranged individual. The same is true for conservatives. Frivolously accusing conservatives of inspiring the Buffalo shooting is dangerous, divisive, and a farce.
The left’s second claim is that Republicans openly support replacement theory. Replacement theory argues that “Jewish elites are engineering the ethnic and cultural replacement of white populations with non-white immigrants that will lead to a ‘white genocide’” in the United States and European nations. This theory, which white supremacists embrace, is a racist and anti-Semitic worldview. Those who believe in replacement theory argue that white people should be fearful of non-white people and take action to stop them from taking over. Adherents of replacement theory use it to justify racist rhetoric and violent attacks.
Democrats and the media are attempting to link conservatives to this theory because the Buffalo shooter was a replacement theorist. This is part of a long-standing leftist campaign to mischaracterize Republicans as racist, white supremacists. Democrats claim that the right’s opposition to illegal immigration proves that conservatives support replacement theory.
Republicans support immigration to the United States for people of all races and ethnicities; however, they want immigrants to go through the legal immigration process. Additionally, Republicans want immigrants to value core United States principles - such as individual rights – and bring a skill or educational experience which would benefit the country. In a sovereign nation, advocating for secure borders is not even remotely comparable to an ideology that hates all non-white people. Conservatives are making a policy argument when they argue against illegal immigration. That is markedly different from replacement theory, which argues that all non-white immigrants, legal or illegal, should be banned solely on the basis of race. The left is intentionally conflating an entirely unobjectionable position, opposing illegal immigration, with an anti-Semitic and racist theory.
Some on the left have accused all Republicans of being replacement theorists, blaming the entire political right for the Buffalo shooting.
Writing for Rolling Stone, Talia Lavin published an article titled, “The Buffalo Shooter Isn’t a ‘Lone Wolf.’ He’s a Mainstream Republican.”
Filmmaker Rob Reiner blamed Republicans for the shooting, tweeting, “The racist massacre in Buffalo rest at the feet of Donald Trump, Tucker Carlson, and the GOP. There are not fine people on both sides.”
Other leftists specifically targeted Fox News and Tucker Carlson, claiming that their purported replacement theory rhetoric caused the Buffalo shooting.
Representative Adam Schiff tweeted, “Tucker Carlson is many things – but he’s not stupid. When he pushes racist conspiracies like “the great replacement,” he knows the risks. He knows some view his vile hate as a call to arms. The problem is Tucker just doesn’t give a damn about anyone but himself.”
On the Senate floor, Chuck Schumer said, “According to one measure by the New York Times, Fox’s top political pundit, most widely watched, Tucker Carlson, has spewed rhetoric that echoes replacement theory at least 400 times on his show since 2016. . . This is a poison that’s being spread by one of the largest news organizations in our country.”
The New York Times article Schumer referred to has been widely cited across the left as evidence that Tucker Carlson is a white supremacist. Carlson argues that Democrats support illegal immigration because they view it as an opportunity to expand their voting base. Tucker frequently makes this point on his show when arguing against illegal immigration. The argument set forth by Tucker Carlson is accurate. Most congressional Democrats want to grant amnesty to all illegal immigrants. If the illegal immigrants were granted amnesty, they would primarily vote for Democrats, the party which granted them amnesty. That would provide the Democrats with millions of additional votes, giving the left a nearly insurmountable electoral advantage. The New York Times, and the left broadly, are intentionally conflating Carlson’s policy argument on immigration with an abhorrent and racist theory.
The left and the media ultimately have three nefarious objectives in conflating mainstream conservatism with replacement theory:
To blame conservatives for the Buffalo shooting.
To scare conservatives into silence by frivolously associating them with a racist ideology.
To move mainstream conservative views outside of the Overton window, allowing leftists to classify conservatives as extremists.
Garrett Gillespie graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Central Florida with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science.
The Gillespie Report is a weekly news and conservative commentary column written by Garrett Gillespie. Subscribe to receive the newest edition each week for free.